It is desirable in various industrial application to clad the interior surfaces of metallic pipe sections with wear resistant or hard surface coatings to protect the interior surfaces against corrosion, abrasion, and/or surface contamination. The interior surfaces of pipe sections are typically clad by depositing the cladding material thereon using well known methods in the field of automatic or semi-automatic electric arc welding. Best results are typically achieved when this procedure is conducted in the “flat plane” position, e.g. with the surface to receive the molten cladding material being disposed below and horizontal with respect to the weld head, as opposed to the “horizontal” or “overhead” positions.
Cladding the interior surfaces of curved piped sections is difficult and expensive. There exists numerous systems, methods and devices for cladding the interior surfaces of curved pipe sections. An example of device and method for circumferential application of a cladding material to the interior surface of a curved pipe section is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,383. An example of a device and method for the helical application of cladding material to the interior surface of a curved pipe section is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,383. While these existing devices and methods fulfill their particular objectives, a need remains for an apparatus and method of longitudinally cladding the interior surfaces of a curved pipe section in an efficient and cost effective manner.